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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29906667">No Longer Human</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowyWhisper/pseuds/SnowyWhisper'>SnowyWhisper</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:16:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,236</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29906667</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowyWhisper/pseuds/SnowyWhisper</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>How did Michiru awake as Sailor Neptune?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>No Longer Human</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Michiru was seven years old when the ocean had almost taken her.<br/>
It started as a normal day by the beach. Little Michiru was happy that day, since it was rare for her busy parents to take a whole day off<br/>
and spend it with her. She was wearing a one piece swimsuit she could hardly persuade her mother to buy, instead of the pink frilly one her mom<br/>
had favored, Michiru had fallen in love with a turquise, glittery swimsuit with Ariel printed on it. She loved the little mermaid.<br/>
"Mama! Papa! I want to swim already!" she yelled, looking quite bored playing on the sand by herself. There were quite a few people at the <br/>
beach, but no children her age. Her dad was on the phone for something business related, and her mom was sunbathing, neither of them were that<br/>
fond of swimming. "You can go first, honey, just stay on the shore where I can see you." Her mother sounded calm and confident, since her young<br/>
daughter had shown a rare talent in swimming, just like she did on arts and music. <br/>
Michiru jumped on her feet, taking little excited steps towards the ocean. It was freezing at first, and she shivered, but soon she was ready<br/>
to let herself go inside the blue world. <br/>
There were other people swimming near, but she did not hear them. It was so strange. It was happening again. <br/>
She never told anyone, but whenever she swam in the ocean, she felt so safe, secure and... almost like a different person. One time she did<br/>
not even recognize the voice of her mother calling her from the shore. She had been completely immersed, almost enchanted by the water around her,<br/>
that she had forgotten her own name.<br/>
That feeling was stronger now. She wondered if that was what Ariel felt. If she was secretly a mermaid, who have been born into human world by mistake.<br/>
Mistake... could it be? She never felt at home in the world anyway. She loved her parents, but she did not feel connected to them.<br/>
In the arms of the ocean, the little girl felt home.<br/>
She dived. Holding her breath under water was a pleasing sensation. She could taste the salt in her lips. It was annoying that she needed<br/>
oxygen. Why couldn't she stay a little longer?<br/>
What if she did?<br/>
Concept of death was still distant to a seven year old, as it happens. Michiru decided to stay under water for a while to see what happens next.<br/>
A shining light, blue and green. She sees herself. Did she grow up already?<br/>
There is someone else with her. Someone beautiful. Or handsome?<br/>
All sensations leave her body. She longs to let herself go, and drown. Because that blue light is so close to her. If she dies, she will be home.<br/>
"Not now. You have a mission to complete." A soft, but serious voice. Who is talking?<br/>
The light is pushing her back, back to her body. Michiru is trying to resist, but it is futile. She can not leave yet. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>10 YEARS LATER</p>
<p><br/>
Michiru Kaioh could not care less about her own painting exhibition.<br/>
She was not painting for people to admire her and be jealous of her. For them to be desperate to become her friend, just because she is known<br/>
to be charmed, and her talent is contagious. She certainly was not painting to satisfy the ego of her parents.<br/>
She did not hate the attention and praise, it simply meant nothing to her. She could still get attention and praise without painting anyway,<br/>
it was the way she looked. She was easily the prettiest girl in school. She dressed herself in an elegant fashion, never tried too hard<br/>
but she never looked out of place. Her naturally wavy hair looked soft and shiny at all times, and her make up was always done professionally.<br/>
Yet still, she was unaffected by all the praise and popularity. As if she saw all that as a burden.<br/>
Michiru liked feeling pretty, but never for other people. She was just searching for that particular feeling she felt long ago, that moment<br/>
she felt the universe was, all of it, intensely beautiful. That feeling of the ocean.<br/>
She painted to get that feeling again, but it kept escaping her. She did not even know what exactly she was longing for. That day ten years ago,<br/>
she had almost drowned. Almost gone.<br/>
She had almost... transformed.<br/>
Michiru patiently waits for the exhibition to be over. She wanted to go swimming.</p>
<p>NIGHT</p>
<p>That day had been exhausting, and that was an understatement. <br/>
After swimming, she had her therapy session, with a man her mother was forcing her to see every week. "My daughter is not going to be a melancholic<br/>
loner," her mother had said, with no attempt to hide her disappointment. "Do you know how many people would kill to be in your place? Not only<br/>
rich and beautiful, but also talented in not one or two, but three areas? Why are you locking yourself in here?"<br/>
"I am not, I was literally hanging with my friends today!" Michiru had yelled, but she knew it was not exactly true. She never made any real<br/>
connection with anyone. So many people pursued her, but she turned them all down, not giving a single chance. <br/>
Michiru knew that her mother, in her simple mind, could not understand her depression. She had everything in the world. <br/>
Yet, she felt like an empty seashell.</p>
<p>"What do you think will make you happy?" the therapist asks.<br/>
Michiru stays silent for a long time. She can not explain that peaceful feeling at the ocean where she almost died.<br/>
"I just want to feel like myself." Michiru hated her answer. It sounded so blank, did not express anything at all. <br/>
"Who do you think you are, Michiru?" he asks patiently.<br/>
All she can think is the ocean.<br/>
"I am nothing at all." Michiru whispers, and she begins to cry.</p>
<p>For how long has she been staring at the mirror?<br/>
She dreads going to sleep, for she does not know what dreams may come.<br/>
She decides to take a bath. </p>
<p>How very cliche of me, Michiru thought, as she observed herself feeling all melancholic in a bathtub. I might as well take some pills <br/>
or cut my wrists. How very cliche. <br/>
Or...<br/>
She was not suicidal, that had just been a train of thought. But this next thought felt a lot more appealing. What if she did it?<br/>
If she held her breath under water, could she get that feeling again? It was worth a try.<br/>
So she let herself go. </p>
<p>Blue.<br/>
Blue of the sea and the oceans. Blue of the sky. Blue of the eyes of the woman she saw in her dreams.<br/>
Blue of the beautiful planet, Neptune.<br/>
A distant world, not even visible to naked eye. Why is she thinking of it now?<br/>
Why does it feel like home?</p>
<p>Michiru's body starts to shake violently. She gasps upon realizing she can breathe under water. She panickly leaves the bathtub, and faces <br/>
the mirror, and just stares.</p>
<p>Her black hair had turned sea green.</p>
<p>The mirror reflects. It shows her. It makes her remember. Her hands pulsate, as if she has magic in them. She surely has magic in them.<br/>
She is no longer human. </p>
<p> </p>
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